Masahiro Sakurai doesn’t have one of his regular columns in Famitsu this week, but he is featured in the magazine nonetheless. That’s because the Japanese publication is sharing an interview with the Smash Bros. Ultimate director.

We’ll be taking a more in-depth look at the interview soon (technically the latest Famitsu isn’t even out yet), but as usual, some tidbits have leaked out online early. Here’s a brief roundup:

– Development actually started around February of 2016
– Sakurai was aware of the Switch fairly early on and had been shown its design from the planning stages
– Sakurai didn’t really consider changing the layout based on what mode the game was played in
– The Switch’s LCD was a lot clearer than he had thought; there weren’t any problems even when in tabletop mode
– Changing the layout between the portable, tabletop, and docked modes meant the team’s work would have had to have been two-fold
– It was pretty important in the grand scheme of things that it ended up not being necessary
– On people struggling against the harder Spirits: “It’s important that your level should sufficiently match your opponent’s – your immediate goal should be to level up your Spirits as you fight, not trying to do it in one giant leap.”
– “Using King K. Rool’s stomach armor-based moves will grant him super armor. Taking too much damage will cause it to crack and leave him dazed, though.”
– Sakurai says that for online battles, it’d probably be best if you didn’t think too hard about how many wins and losses you have
– Even if you have access to both, he believes it’d be better to just look at how much you’ve won
– Sakurai will take another look at Elite Matches after some time has passed, when it’s a little more intense
– On the next Smash game: “It’d be fine if there wasn’t another one for about 10 years, don’t you think?” (laughs)
– Sakurai received something close to an order for a new Smash Bros. since the Switch was coming out – that was this game